Machine PM/ Operator responsibilities

[kkarasch]

I'm trying to improve our shop culture. Was wondering what other facilities do regarding the cleaning and pm of your CNC equipment. What are the operator responsibilities...etc. Also what type of equipment/supplies you have at each work center for performing these duties. Thanks for any feedback.

-kurt

[cjcmrkting]

HI I work in a small company max.150 employees.i am in charge of all the maintence of our mach. everything from old hyd-mec saws to million dollar cnc tables.this is on top of my normal responsabilitys sorry my spelling sucks. but we have found over time with one person doing all the PM it doesnt get skipped or forgotten. as far as daily or weekly. go through the machine manuals they will tell u what they need and when. make checklist for the operators. well that is about all i can give ya hope it helped.

[ryanschmidt224]

hey kurt, Id have to agree with cjcmrkting on this one. As far as PM goes i think one person is your best bet. For cleaning on the other hand, i believe everybody should clean their own machine and just windex and some papertowels nearby has always been enough for me.

[christinandavid]

Operators told to do general maintainance on machines.

Checklist drawn up to sign off checks at required frequency.

Operators do what they can when they can, until under pressure to keep machine running. Sometimes sign things off they haven't checked.

One operator performs checks (or pretends) more regularly than handover operator.

Handover operator under more pressure to keep machine running, leaves maintenance chart to other operator.

First operator thinks "stuff this, why should I do maintenance when the other guy isn't?"

Operators get moved onto other machines with different checks/schedules. Operators care not for machines they are not regularly operating.

Maintenance schedule gradually abandoned.



My advice: either allocate a time of day/week/month in which maintenance must be performed, or draw up a checksheet that follows no schedule, but just suggests a frequency. That way at least something can be done in any spare moment by any operator. Sign and date it and overdue checks become apparent.


DP

[kkarasch]

That was part of the question as well. What products (cleaners, rags, paper-towels) does everyone use for wiping machines down?

[cjcmrkting]

this can be tricky question. it all depends on the machine. on my big cnc tables i just blow them off with a good air wand. way to much electronics for cleaners. you have to watch what u use and where since some can eat plastics or fog glass. my shears and breaks get wiped with a good penetrating oil to keep them from rusting. but u can never go wrong with air blowers or shop vacs. the shop buys industrial rags which soak oil up great but they leave streaks and they are rough so i get good shop rags for my tooling and such.so what it all comes own to is what u like to use.if u need more give me more detail on what u r doing.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Vacuum cleaning's OK.

If you use pressurized air on my machine tools you will be FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dick Z

[cjcmrkting]

AIR BLOWER ON A 5' X 30' ROUTER TABLE A$$%@!&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
U KNOW WITH A 3/4" SPOILE BOARD ON IT

[kkarasch]

well have a few vertical milling centers, one 5 axis, and 6 cnc turning centers. Then some manual lathes and a few NC bridgeports. Mostly i was referring to the CNC machines and the basic daily/in-process cleaning procedures and what equipment is at the machines to perform these tasks regularly. We also used the compressed air quite a bit. especially for blowing off parts and jaws. it would be nice to have industrial vacs at every machine but that is quite costly.

Thanks again for the input.

[cjcmrkting]

just get ya a heavy duty shop vac and take the filter they work great for picking op chips even with stainlless and other heavy metals.